Our say: Meaning of Columbus Day likely to keep on shifting

Nicole Scott is the co-director for the Native American Future Stewards Program at the Rochester Institute of Technology, she said their mission is to educate people on the parts of the story that weren't taught in schools.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted this week to eliminate all references to Columbus Day as a county holiday, designating October 12 as Italian American Heritage Day and creating a new Indigenous Peoples Day.

It should be noted that for every one native American who was killed at the hands of a white European, ten were felled by diseases.

President Donald Trump in a traditional holiday declaration diverged from former President Barack Obama's declarations by not mention any of Columbus' ills.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Columbus Day a federal holiday in 1937 following a lobbying campaign by the Knights of Columbus.

It might be a three-day weekend for some people, but before you take the day off from work or go to the bank or other business, check first.

Columbus was a native of the City of Genoa, in present day Italy, and his voyage was sponsored by Isabella I and Ferdinand II of Spain.

And most Americans - 76 percent - believe historical figures like Columbus should be judged by the standards of conduct of their own times and not by modern standards. "But the older statues, historic statues, they should stay", Williams said.

Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis and Austin, Texas, have chosen to celebrate Indigenous People's Day on the second Monday in October.

Since its inception, Indigenous Peoples' Day has helped to foster feelings of solidarity, dignity, acceptance and healing between the local Native and non-Native communities, according to Hallie Frazer, a board member on Berkeley's Indigenous Peoples' Day Committee and a descendant of the Quechua Nation of Peru.

Some argue that, as an Italian, he is responsible for the birth of Italian-American culture. New York City still has one of the nation's largest Columbus Day parades.

Other explorers - namely Vikings, such as Leif Erikson - made landfall on North America, in what is now Newfoundland, centuries before Columbus set sail.

Parade spectator Rose Bove, 57, is adamantly against changing the name of the day or taking down the statue.